While Deputy Secretary of State Crunch was in Taiwan, Trump administration officials also told members of Congress on Capitol Hill that the U.S. is actively engaged with Taiwan and is helping to elevate and expand Taiwan’s international standing in Asia, Europe, and Latin America to counter China’s efforts to isolate and squeeze Taiwan’s international space.
On Thursday (September 17), the U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on “Advancing U.S. Engagement and Confronting China in the Indo-Pacific and Beyond,” with State Department Assistant Secretary for Asia-Pacific Affairs David Stilwell, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Julie Chung, and other members of the U.S. delegation. At the hearing, U.S. Representatives Chung (D-Minn.) and Philip Reeker (D-Minn.), Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, repeatedly referred to the U.S. government’s diplomatic efforts around the world to counter Chinese coercion against Taiwan, and a number of Members of Congress from both parties expressed their concern for Taiwan in their speeches and questions.
In describing the U.S. government’s policy toward Taiwan, David Stark said that the United States “respects Taiwan, and our commitment to the implementation of the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Pledges is as strong as our one-China policy, including our insistence that differences across the Taiwan Strait must be resolved peacefully, without coercion or intimidation. Secretary Azar’s recent visit to Taiwan is evidence that the United States will work with Taiwan on issues including global health. The upcoming dialogue will advance our strong economic relationship. We will also continue to strongly support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations.”
Julie Chung said U.S. cooperation with Asian democracy partners in Latin America, such as Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, is an “important tool” to raise local awareness of China, and when she visits Latin American countries, she also meets publicly with local ambassadors from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to promote shared values.
“There are nine of Taiwan’s 15 diplomatic partners in the Western Hemisphere. We are hyper-vigilant that China is pressuring these countries to shift diplomatic recognition to Beijing. Maintaining the status quo in Taiwan’s diplomatic relations, highlighting our shared democratic values, and demonstrating Taiwan’s engagement and partnership in the region are our highest priorities.”
In response to Senator Gardner’s question about the U.S.-Taiwan bilateral trade agreement, Starkey said that Deputy Secretary of State Keith Krach is visiting Taiwan, and that this approach is intended to be consistent with U.S. laws, including the Taiwan Relations Act, the Taiwan Travel Act, and the Taipei Act (TAIPEI Act, which is part of the Taiwan Allies’ International Security and Reinforcement Initiative Act). In the United States, Taiwan’s military sales to the United States have been addressed in the U.S., including the administration’s handling of issues such as arms sales to Taiwan with Congress, on the basis of full compliance with various U.S. agreements to ensure that Taiwan’s relationship with China is not adversely affected. Differences on the mainland can be resolved peacefully.
Senator Ted Cruz (D-N.Y.) remained focused on the State Department’s approach to the internal document “Guidelines on Relations with Taiwan” during the hearing. He had asked Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun to comment on the guidelines at a hearing in July after introducing legislation that would have required the State Department to modify the guidelines’ restrictions to allow Taiwanese officials and military personnel to display their flags and insignia at U.S. government facilities, although he believed that was a matter for the State Department to decide. There is no need to pass legislation to require it.
Cruz said that Beagan had reviewed the Taiwan guidelines and replied to him in writing that changing the guidelines would cause “tension” with the TAR, but that he could not accept the State Department’s interpretation that this was a political decision of the Obama administration at the time and had nothing to do with the TAR, which does not contain any provision to that effect. restrictions. He asked Starkey to clarify exactly which section of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) states that Taiwanese military personnel cannot display their insignia in the United States.
Instead of responding directly to Cruz’s question, Starkey emphasized that the relevant section of the TAR was the decision not to make any decisions about Taiwan’s sovereignty, that the United States takes no position on sovereignty, and that it is the policy of the United States and the TAR to leave Taiwan and China to negotiate as long as the process can be peaceful and resolved through dialogue, not coercion.
Cruz, however, was not satisfied with Starkey’s response. He said that the State Department’s 2015 guidelines restricting Taiwanese officials and military personnel from wearing or displaying flags and insignia in the United States were put in place because Taiwan’s flag-raising ceremony at Twin Oaks had angered the Chinese government, and the Obama administration’s State Department decided to change the rules to please China because there were no such guidelines before 2015, and until then Taiwanese military personnel were allowed to wear their insignia in the United States.
Starkey again said that the Trump administration has taken a number of steps to reverse previous decisions and clarify the U.S. position on Taiwan, and that Health Secretary Azar’s previous visit to Taiwan and the current visit to Taiwan by Under Secretary of State Crutcher are examples of U.S. support for Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against Chinese coercion and are consistent with Cruz’s focus on Taiwan.
Cruz said that he was not surprised that the Obama administration, under Secretary Kerry, would do so because their position on China is weaker than that of the Trump administration, and that in his view, these guidelines are “extremely inappropriate” for a Trump administration or a State Department led by Pompeo ( utterly inapproiate), he rejects Starr’s argument and asks the State Department to revisit the issue because the State Department has the ability to change the rule, which was originally decided by the Obama administration at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party. “If you can create these regulations out of thin air to make the Chinese Communist Party happy, you can repeal them to make the Chinese Communist Party unhappy.”
Also, in response to Senator Ben Cardin’s question about how the U.S. could assist Latin America in countering Chinese influence, Julie Chung responded with two examples involving Taiwan.
She said that the U.S. offers Taiwan space in international multilateral organizations at the Organization of American States (OAS), and that last year at an OAS conference on humanitarian assistance to Venezuela, the U.S. facilitated the attendance of a Taiwanese representative to speak at the conference and announced on the spot that Taiwan would contribute US$500,000, “which was unprecedented, and it probably upset our friends in Beijing quite a bit to have Taiwan at that conference,” but that the U.S. simply wanted to provide a space where a democratic Taiwan could participate in local multilateral activities.
In another example, as the Inter-American Development Bank prepared to hold its annual meeting in Chengdu, China, which pays only 0.004 percent of its dues, refused to allow representatives of Venezuelan opposition leader Guaido to attend, as well as representatives from Taiwan, which is an observer in the organization and therefore cooperates with the United States “to resist China’s attempts to create its own rules in international organizations. “That last annual meeting was held in Ecuador, not in Chengdu.
In written testimony, Philip Reeker, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, mentioned that Secretary Pompeo’s visit to the Czech Republic last month has transformed the country from a target of Chinese influence to a leader in Europe’s awakening to China.
He said, “The recent visit of the President of the Czech Senate to Taiwan is just one in a series of powerful actions by the Czech Republic to resist Chinese bullying, and it solidifies the Czech Republic as a regional leader in the fight against Chinese Communist influence.”
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